Wednesday, August 21, 2019

GERMANY NO COMMENT ON "ANTI NAZI" BAN ON VISITING ALBANIAN NATIONALISTS


by Sasha Uzunov


The German Interior Ministry says it cannot comment - for privacy reasons - if Albanian nationalists in Macedonia who venerate WWII Albanian Nazi collaborators are banned from entering Germany.

Mr Steve Alter, a spokesman for the German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, issued the following statement:

"thank you for your questions. As one of the press spokespersons of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community I can inform you, that we generally do not comment any particular cases with respect to the personal data protection regulations."

Section 130 of the German Criminal Code (link) bans the glorification of National Socialism (Nazism). In 1993 controversial British author and Holocaust denier David Irving was banned from entering Germany. In 2012 that ban was overturned. Irving did, however, do jail time in Austria for Holocaust denial.




Questions to the German Interior Minister:

Question 1: Will the Federal Republic of Germany's Interior Ministry be banning politicians from the ultra Albanian nationalist party DUI (BDI-) such as leader Ali Ahmeti, Bujar Osmani who is Macedonia's Deputy Prime Minister, Nevzat Bejta, Teuta Arifi, Artan Grubi and Talat Xhaferi who is Macedonia Parliament Speaker - from entering German sovereign territory in potential breach of German Criminal Code Section 130 which forbids the glorification and justifying of National Socialism [Nazism]?

-The DUI party has a neo-Nazi ideology and venerates World War II Albanian Nazi collaborators such as Xhem Hasa Gostivari. Nevzat Bejta has gone to the extreme of building a statue to Xhem Hasa Gostivari in Macedonia as well as a second statue to another Albanian Nazi collaborator Aqif Krosi Recani. 

- The Federal Republic of Germany has in the past prosecuted individuals for breaching Section 130 as well as barring them entry into Germany for issues ranging from Holocaust denial to the glorification of Nazism.



Question 2: Will the German Interior Ministry be conducting some kind of investigation into the above mentioned Albanian nationalist politicians - Ali Ahmeti, Bujar Osmani, Nevzat Bejta, Teuta Arifi and Artan Grubi - as to their suitability or legality in entering German sovereign territory over Section 130 of the German Criminal Code. 

The subject of Albanian Nazi collaborator statues in Macedonia and the extremist ideology which underpins them remains a touchy for the West, especially Germany, the US, and the EU as a whole as they have all endorsed the very people who have built these statues. Last year the German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a media conference in Skopje, Macedonia would not take a question on Albanian Nazi statues.





Previous story - DUI DOWN UNDER - 
2 August 2019 - link here




by Sasha Uzunov

Australia's Home Affairs Department has refused to comment on whether six ethnic Albanian nationalist politicians from Macedonia are prohibited from entering Australia. They belong to the DUI (BDI) party which has supported the building of controversial WW2 Albanian Nazi collaborator statues in Macedonia.

"The Department does not comment on individual cases," a Home Affairs media spokesperson said. And would not elaborate further.

The six are Ali Ahmeti, the leader of DUI, Nevzat Bejta, Bujar Osmani, Deputy Prime Minister in the Zaev coalition government of Macedonia, Artan Grubi, Teuta Arifiand Talat Xhaferi, the Parliamentary Speaker elected under controversial circumstances in April 2017 which precipitated a riot in the Macedonian Assembly. -more on DUI's extremist ideology at these links here and here and here

Australian authorities have the power to deny an entry visa to individuals it regards as holding extremist views. Holocaust denier David Irving and a variety of US rappers and a host others have been barred in the past - see link 

In 2001 the Kosovo Liberation Army’s offshoot, the National Liberation Army led by Ali Ahmeti, invaded Macedonia to take territory for a Greater Albania – when this plan stalled and the terrorists – initially damned by the West - were overnight transformed into aggrieved civil rights activists.

Ahmeti and his crew including NLA field commanders became the genesis of DUI (BDI) as they swapped their weapons and combat fatigues for MP's business suits. Later joined by other commanders such as Nevzat Bejta and Talat Xhaferi. 

Bejta as the Mayor of the town of Gostivar and Macedonian government minister built a statue in 2006 to a notorious World War II Albanian Nazi collaborator Xhem Hasa Gostovari who had killed Macedonians and Albanians opposed to fascism during the War. He followed that up with a second Nazi collaborator statue in 2013. Ahmeti has gone on public record that one of his motivations for starting the 2001 war was to ethnically cleanse Macedonians in the west of the country where a large number of Albanians live. Artan Grubi only recently repeated those extremist sentiments. This ideology was shared by Nazi collaborator Xhem Hasa Gostivari. 



Because DUI is regarded as pro-US, in fact, a political client which ended up supporting changing Macedonia's name in 2018, the Western media refuse to scrutinise let alone criticise its neo-nazi leanings.

POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY

In 2008 courtesy of an amnesty law introduced by the Macedonian government led by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski who needed to keep coalition partner Ahmeti onside and, no doubt strong-armed by the US in the background, no prosecutions were initiated against the NLA. So Ahmeti who started a war, killed people and set off a chain of evidence that led to other killings, got off scot-free whilst a Macedonian Police reservist Johan Tarculovski did time for war crimes handed down by the International Tribunal at the Hague. It struck many Macedonians as blatantly unfair and selective justiceto say the least. 


The interesting thing is a European Court of Human Rights ruling has laid down that war crimes cannot be “pardoned” or “amnestied” yet no Macedonian court is willing to launch an indictment of Ahmeti or any of the NLA leaders in Macedonia. 




A number of NLA members ended up on various international and US government blacklists relating to terrorism, such as Xhevat Ademi (pictured above) who in 2012 managed to somehow convince or someone else either the Gruevski government or the US behind the scenes managed to convince – the Australian government to allow him entry into Australia as a member of a Macedonian Parliamentary delegation led by the then Speaker, Trajko Veljanoski, a VMRO-DPMNE member.




When word reached local community leaders in Australia, it created enormous outrage. Mr Igor A. Aleksandrov (pictured above)  the President now the CEO of the Macedonian Orthodox Community, of Australia, lobbied Australian politicians to ignore Ademi, which they did. Not one Australian State or Federal MP met with Ademi.


TEAM UZUNOV has obtained a copy of Mr Aleksandrov's 2012 letter sent to Australian officials:

It has come to our attention that the Australian Parliament is currently hosting a delegation of the Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia, which includes Djevat (Xhevat) Ademi.

Is the Australian Parliament aware that Mr Ademi is a key leader of a extremist movement seeking the creation of an ethnically “cleansed” Greater Albania, by way of terrorist violence or threats of terrorist violence? 

Is the Parliament aware that Mr Ademi was a leader of the racist “National Liberation Army” (NLA), which conducted unprovoked terrorist violence against Macedonian civilian, police and military targets in 2001, and which was described by NATO Secretary-General George Robertson as  “a bunch of murderous thugs whose objective is to destroy a democratic Macedonia and who are using civilians as human shields” in a cynical bid to provoke “another Balkan bloodbath”?[1]

Is the Parliament aware that Mr Ademi has been blacklisted under the US President’s Executive Order 13219, Blocking Property of Persons Who Threaten International Stabilization Efforts in the Balkans, since June 26 2001?[2]  The object of the order was to deal with the threat constituted by “the actions of persons engaged in, or assisting, sponsoring, or supporting extremist violence in the Republic of Macedonia and elsewhere in the Western Balkans region.”  This Order was most recently continued by US President Barrack Obama on June 23 2011, and is still current, with Mr Ademi’s name still on the list.[3]

We understand that the Macedonian Government largely appeased Mr Ademi’s terrorist movement with the “Ohrid Framework Agreement” of 13 August 2001, by caving in to extremist demands for ethnic segregation and privileged positions in all levels of Government and the public service.  However, the Macedonian Australian community almost unanimously condemned that agreement as being racially discriminatory, and as constituting a reward for terrorism that is bound to encourage further use of violence for political ends, including ethnic cleansing and territorial secession.  Our position was consistent with general Australian values of equality before the law, regardless of ethnicity or religion, and with generally consistent Australian policy that terrorist violence must never be tolerated, let alone rewarded.


On August 14, 2001, Mr Ademi was quoted as saying that the Ohrid Framework “agreement was merely an interim solution”,[1]hinting at more separatist violence in future, toward his goal of an ethnically pure Greater Albania.   Mr Ademi’s extremist movement has since obtained further inequitable and unjust concessions from the Macedonian Government by sporadic violence and threats of renewed terrorist attacks.

Mr Ademi has a reputation as a key fundraiser for his extremist movement, including fundraising from abroad.  Given that he has never repented, apologized or been held accountable for his leadership of extremist violence in the past, it would be reasonable to suspect that he would use his Australian visit to incite extremism among the Australian Albanian community, while at the same time gaining legitimacy for his extremist movement by being formally received and honored by Australian politicians.

Over the past four days, there has been growing discontent among the Macedonian Australian community about the fact that Mr Ademi has not only been allowed into the country, but is being received as an honored guest by the Australian Parliament and Australian officials.  We suspect that the Speaker of the Macedonian Parliament has included Mr Ademi in the delegation under duress, in view of his reputation for pursuing political aims by violence or threats of violence. However, that is no excuse for a person blacklisted by the USA for his extremist activity to be received as an official guest of Australia, where we have broad consensus that violent extremists must never be appeased and we even send our soldiers to risk their lives fighting terrorism abroad, as part of a US-led alliance.

We hereby ask you to consider urgent deportation of Mr Ademi from Australia and to ensure that he is excluded from any further meetings or functions with Australian officials.  

We have no objections to any Australian officials receiving the remainder of the delegation led by the Speaker of the Macedonian Parliament, Mr Trajko Veljanovski.  In fact, we applaud the efforts towards improved relations between Australia and the Republic of Macedonia. However, we encourage Australian officials to show full respect for the right to self-determination and self-identification of the Macedonian people, by refraining from the use of unwelcome references such as “Former Yugoslav Republic” of Macedonia or “FYROM”.  

We look forward to your urgent reply to our community’s concerns.

Yours sincerely,

Igor A. Aleksandrov
President

Friday, August 02, 2019

DUI DOWN UNDER


by Sasha Uzunov

Australia's Home Affairs Department has refused to comment on whether six ethnic Albanian nationalist politicians from Macedonia are prohibited from entering Australia. They belong to the DUI (BDI) party which has supported the building of controversial WW2 Albanian Nazi collaborator statues in Macedonia.

"The Department does not comment on individual cases," a Home Affairs media spokesperson said. And would not elaborate further.

The six are Ali Ahmeti, the leader of DUI, Nevzat Bejta, Bujar Osmani, Deputy Prime Minister in the Zaev coalition government of Macedonia, Artan Grubi, Teuta Arifi, and Talat Xhaferi, the Parliamentary Speaker elected under controversial circumstances in April 2017 which precipitated a riot in the Macedonian Assembly. -more on DUI's extremist ideology at these links here and here and here

Australian authorities have the power to deny an entry visa to individuals it regards as holding extremist views. Holocaust denier David Irving and a variety of US rappers and a host others have been barred in the past - see link 

In 2001 the Kosovo Liberation Army’s offshoot, the National Liberation Army led by Ali Ahmeti, invaded Macedonia to take territory for a Greater Albania – when this plan stalled and the terrorists – initially damned by the West - were overnight transformed into aggrieved civil rights activists.

Ahmeti and his crew including NLA field commanders became the genesis of DUI (BDI) as they swapped their weapons and combat fatigues for MP's business suits. Later joined by other commanders such as Nevzat Bejta and Talat Xhaferi. 

Bejta as the Mayor of the town of Gostivar and Macedonian government minister built a statue in 2006 to a notorious World War II Albanian Nazi collaborator Xhem Hasa Gostovari who had killed Macedonians and Albanians opposed to fascism during the War. He followed that up with a second Nazi collaborator statue in 2013. Ahmeti has gone on public record that one of his motivations for starting the 2001 war was to ethnically cleanse Macedonians in the west of the country where a large number of Albanians live. Artan Grubi only recently repeated those extremist sentiments. This ideology was shared by Nazi collaborator Xhem Hasa Gostivari. 



Because DUI is regarded as pro-US, in fact, a political client which ended up supporting changing Macedonia's name in 2018, the Western media refuse to scrutinise let alone criticise its neo-nazi leanings.

POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY

In 2008 courtesy of an amnesty law introduced by the Macedonian government led by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski who needed to keep coalition partner Ahmeti onside and, no doubt strong-armed by the US in the background, no prosecutions were initiated against the NLA. So Ahmeti who started a war, killed people and set off a chain of evidence that led to other killings, got off scot-free whilst a Macedonian Police reservist Johan Tarculovski did time for war crimes handed down by the International Tribunal at the Hague. It struck many Macedonians as blatantly unfair and selective justice, to say the least. 

The interesting thing is a European Court of Human Rights ruling has laid down that war crimes cannot be “pardoned” or “amnestied” yet no Macedonian court is willing to launch an indictment of Ahmeti or any of the NLA leaders in Macedonia. 



A number of NLA members ended up on various international and US government blacklists relating to terrorism, such as Xhevat Ademi (pictured above) who in 2012 managed to somehow convince or someone else either the Gruevski government or the US behind the scenes managed to convince – the Australian government to allow him entry into Australia as a member of a Macedonian Parliamentary delegation led by the then Speaker, Trajko Veljanoski, a VMRO-DPMNE member.




When word reached local community leaders in Australia, it created enormous outrage. Mr Igor A. Aleksandrov (pictured above)  the President now the CEO of the Macedonian Orthodox Community, of Australia, lobbied Australian politicians to ignore Ademi, which they did. Not one Australian State or Federal MP met with Ademi.


TEAM UZUNOV has obtained a copy of Mr Aleksandrov's 2012 letter sent to Australian officials:

It has come to our attention that the Australian Parliament is currently hosting a delegation of the Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia, which includes Djevat (Xhevat) Ademi.

Is the Australian Parliament aware that Mr Ademi is a key leader of a extremist movement seeking the creation of an ethnically “cleansed” Greater Albania, by way of terrorist violence or threats of terrorist violence? 

Is the Parliament aware that Mr Ademi was a leader of the racist “National Liberation Army” (NLA), which conducted unprovoked terrorist violence against Macedonian civilian, police and military targets in 2001, and which was described by NATO Secretary-General George Robertson as  “a bunch of murderous thugs whose objective is to destroy a democratic Macedonia and who are using civilians as human shields” in a cynical bid to provoke “another Balkan bloodbath”?[1]

Is the Parliament aware that Mr Ademi has been blacklisted under the US President’s Executive Order 13219, Blocking Property of Persons Who Threaten International Stabilization Efforts in the Balkans, since June 26 2001?[2]  The object of the order was to deal with the threat constituted by “the actions of persons engaged in, or assisting, sponsoring, or supporting extremist violence in the Republic of Macedonia and elsewhere in the Western Balkans region.”  This Order was most recently continued by US President Barrack Obama on June 23 2011, and is still current, with Mr Ademi’s name still on the list.[3]

We understand that the Macedonian Government largely appeased Mr Ademi’s terrorist movement with the “Ohrid Framework Agreement” of 13 August 2001, by caving in to extremist demands for ethnic segregation and privileged positions in all levels of Government and the public service.  However, the Macedonian Australian community almost unanimously condemned that agreement as being racially discriminatory, and as constituting a reward for terrorism that is bound to encourage further use of violence for political ends, including ethnic cleansing and territorial secession.  Our position was consistent with general Australian values of equality before the law, regardless of ethnicity or religion, and with generally consistent Australian policy that terrorist violence must never be tolerated, let alone rewarded.

On August 14, 2001, Mr Ademi was quoted as saying that the Ohrid Framework “agreement was merely an interim solution”,[1]hinting at more separatist violence in future, toward his goal of an ethnically pure Greater Albania.   Mr Ademi’s extremist movement has since obtained further inequitable and unjust concessions from the Macedonian Government by sporadic violence and threats of renewed terrorist attacks.

Mr Ademi has a reputation as a key fundraiser for his extremist movement, including fundraising from abroad.  Given that he has never repented, apologized or been held accountable for his leadership of extremist violence in the past, it would be reasonable to suspect that he would use his Australian visit to incite extremism among the Australian Albanian community, while at the same time gaining legitimacy for his extremist movement by being formally received and honored by Australian politicians.

Over the past four days, there has been growing discontent among the Macedonian Australian community about the fact that Mr Ademi has not only been allowed into the country, but is being received as an honored guest by the Australian Parliament and Australian officials.  We suspect that the Speaker of the Macedonian Parliament has included Mr Ademi in the delegation under duress, in view of his reputation for pursuing political aims by violence or threats of violence. However, that is no excuse for a person blacklisted by the USA for his extremist activity to be received as an official guest of Australia, where we have broad consensus that violent extremists must never be appeased and we even send our soldiers to risk their lives fighting terrorism abroad, as part of a US-led alliance.

We hereby ask you to consider urgent deportation of Mr Ademi from Australia and to ensure that he is excluded from any further meetings or functions with Australian officials.  

We have no objections to any Australian officials receiving the remainder of the delegation led by the Speaker of the Macedonian Parliament, Mr Trajko Veljanovski.  In fact, we applaud the efforts towards improved relations between Australia and the Republic of Macedonia. However, we encourage Australian officials to show full respect for the right to self-determination and self-identification of the Macedonian people, by refraining from the use of unwelcome references such as “Former Yugoslav Republic” of Macedonia or “FYROM”.  

We look forward to your urgent reply to our community’s concerns.

Yours sincerely,

Igor A. Aleksandrov
President





Thursday, July 25, 2019

REEKER TO THE "RESCUE !"

Picture caption: Senior ranking US State Department official Phillip T. Reeker (left) - next to him is Bujar Osmani, Deputy Prime Minister of Macedonia and a member of the Albanian nationalist party DUI which has supported the building of controversial World War II Albanian Nazi collaborator statues in Macedonia after the 2001 ethnic Albanian war in that country.

by Sasha Uzunov 

The man who many Macedonians see as one of the chief architects of changing Macedonia's name and erasing Macedonian identity, the Svengali-like Phillip T. Reeker is about to arrive in Macedonia just in time to head off a number of difficulties the pro-US Zaev government is facing such as a brewing corruption scandal involving extortion and the sudden and unexplained resignation of Katica Janeva, chief of the much-vaunted Special Prosecturors Office (SJO), set up under Western pressure.

Reeker served a tour of duty as US Ambassador to Macedonia (2008-11) and laid the groundwork for name change of the country by lowering just enough Greek and Bulgarian opposition to Macedonia joining NATO - put into effect by another controversial US Ambassador Jess Baily (2014-19) via the  Prespa Agreement and the so-called Good Neighbourly Agreement between Macedonia and Bulgaria. The US maintains it had had nothing to do with it. But the evidence - as outlined extensively by both TEAM Uzunov blog and Alternate Comms website - reveals a totally different picture. see links here and here

TEAM UZUNOV blog has sent Mr Reeker a list of media questions in relation to his upcoming visit to Macedonia. Going by past experiences the likelihood of a response is next to zero. Trying to get the US to comment over its support of Albanian Neo-Nazi leaders in Macedonia is deliberately avoided. There is simply no attempt to dismiss or to put it to rest. That's odd. It strongly suggests deliberate avoidance of the issue.

"FAKE NEWS?" 

In trying to hose down the damage from the brewing Katica Janeva scandal - in reality, close down investigative journalists from investigating - Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has proposed what some say are draconian laws to combat "fake news." - more on Katica Janeva here and here

You might recall PM Zaev was the subject of a prank call by Russian comedians passing themselves off as Ukrainian President Poroshenko and NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg. see link here

SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER

Two Macedonian journalists, Goran Momirovski, the elder statesman of Macedonian journalism, and Ljupco Zlatev a younger reporter were summoned to the Interior Ministry, which runs the police and intelligence service, for an "interview" over their stories relating to corruption scandals. It's nothing more than old fashioned intimidation by those in power. see link here and here and here

This is the environment in which Mr Reeker will find himself when he lands in Macedonia sometime soon. But it's an environment he helped to create and now ironically rushing in as the White Knight to save the day. see link here

A journalist asking a direct question and expecting an answer - and then running the answer in full - cannot in any way be construed or regarded as "fake news" and it explains why the US avoids uttering a single word about WW2 Albanian Nazi collaborator statues or any other sensitive topic as you will see below:


Questions: 

1. Why does the United States support Albanian Neo Nazi leaders in Macedonia such as Ali Ahmeti, Bujar Osmani, Artan Grubi, Nevzat Bejta of the Albanian nationalist party, DUI?

2. Why have you and the US remained silent over the World War II Albanian Nazi collaborator statues built in Macedonia post-2001 war by Albanian nationalist Nevzat Bejta? One statue is to a Xhem Hasa Gostivari, who according to British wartime eyewitness accounts, was a proven Nazi collaborator.

In comparison the US Embassy in Zagreb, Croatia immediately condemned a Croatian far-right extremist march through the Croatian capital in 2017. Why the US silence over WWII Albanian Nazi collaborator statues in Macedonia?




3. Did you have any role in writing, drafting or assisting in writing the controversial Prespa Agreement which erases Macedonian identity? If called upon would you testify in front of the US Congress about any role or non role you had in the Prespa Agreement?






4. The pro-US Zaev-Ahmeti coalition government in Macedonia has been hit with a number of large corruption scandals. The Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva has unexpectedly resigned. Do you wish to comment over why she would have resigned if she has received enormous backing from the US, EU to combat corruption in Macedonia?



5. Macedonia's President Stevo Pendarovski and Macedonia's Defence Minister Radmila Sekerinska, of Serb background, were once staunch Slobodan Milosevic and Serb-Yugoslavist supporters who were anti-West and anti-US up to the year 2000 when the Milosevic regime fell. Mr Pendarovski was in the early 1990s a counterintelligence officer in Macedonia's Interior Ministry. A number of declassified CIA reports and a US army report have revealed the massive scale of UN sanctions-busting in Macedonia in support of the Milosevic regime which would have required the complicity of the Interior Ministry which runs the police, border guards and intelligence.

Why does the US support Mr Pendarovski and Ms Sekerinska? Does this reveal a Machiavellian or cynical side to US foreign policy in Macedonia which has more to do with US strategic interests rather than morality or principle?




6. Bulgaria has waged blackmail and bullying in order to get Macedonia to surrender its history and in return receive Bulgarian support for EU admission. The Bulgarian Defence Minister, Mr Kressimir Karakachanov, an extremist, claims that in 1941 Bulgaria "liberated" Macedonia. This provocative statement is deliberately contrary to the facts and is an indirect and clever form of Holocaust denial. Bulgaria was an ally of Nazi Germany and as a reward was allowed to occupy Macedonia, and in return assisted in the round-up of Jews in Macedonia, sending them to their deaths in Nazi concentration camps. You and the US have remained silent over this behaviour from extremist Bulgarian politicians such as Mr Karakachanov. Could you explain why you have been silent, considering your former role in Holocaust Issues in the US State Department?




7. A 2008 wikileaks cable reveals you as then US Ambassador to Macedonia asking that Mr Nikola Dimitrov, now Macedonia's Foreign Minister, be protected as a confidential source for the US. To the average Macedonian reader that has a kind of sinister or negative inference about Mr Dimitrov's behaviour towards his own country, Macedonia. Some would see that as leaking sensitive information to a foreign power, in this case, the US. As you are well aware the issue of foreign interference of any kind, such as allegations levelled against US President Trump and his links to Russian President Putin has created great consternation.

Do you wish to comment on or react to this - that is your comment about Mr Nikola Dimitrov being protected as a US source of information? What would your reaction be if say a US official leaked sensitive information about the US to a foreign country, say for argument's sake the Democratic Republic of Congo or the People's Republic of China etc.?
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UPDATE: US ENDORSEMENT OF ALBANIAN EXTREMISM - a picture tells a thousand words! 

During his visit to Macedonia on 26
 July, 2019 ,senior US State Department official Phillip T Reeker met with Albanian nationalist leader in Macedonia Ali Ahmeti whose political party DUI venerates WWII Albanian Nazi collaborators such as Xhem Hasa Gostivari & supports statues to them in Macedonia. As yet Mr Reeker has not responded to the media questions that Team Uzunov blog sent him prior to his visit to Macedonia. 

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Monday, July 15, 2019

UNDIPLOMATIC RELATIONS- France envoy endorses Albanian Neo Nazi in Macedonia

by Sasha Uzunov

France's Ambassador to Macedonia, Charles Thimonier, haughty and controversial in his own right, has despite having previous knowledge about a controversial ethnic Albanian nationalist politician Nevzat Bejta who has built a number of World War II Albanian Nazi collaborator statues in Macedonia, still brazenly met with him recently.

Mr Thimonier (centre) is photographed with Bejta (on the right of the photo) having friendly conversations over drinks recently. This was posted on the French Embassy social media page.



Mr Thimonier was contacted by TEAM UZUNOV blog in 2018 over the WWII Albanian Nazi collaborator statues built in Macedonia by Albanian nationalist politician Nevzat Bejta. Mr Thimonier after six weeks of receiving our media query responded that now was not the time to answer. - see link to story here 


Mr Nevzat Bejta has built two World War II Albanian Nazi collaborator statues in Macedonia during his tenure as the Mayor of Gostivar, a predominately ethnic Albanian town in the west of Macedonia.


One of the statues is to Xhem Hasa Gostivari, who according to British wartime accounts, was a proven Nazi collaborator in Macedonia and Albanian during World War II. see link for more on Albanian Nazi collaborator statues in Macedonia


AUSTRALIAN DIPLOMAT ON MYSTERY MACEDONIA MISSION

Mr Richard Wade (left) at the British War Cemetery in Skopje, Macedonia 

by Sasha Uzunov

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has confirmed one of its diplomats, regarded by sources as a heavy hitter, was in Macedonia but would not elaborate on the nature of his fact-finding mission.

DFAT spokesperson issued the following statement to TEAM UZUNOV blog:


"Australian Government officials regularly travel to North Macedonia for bilateral meetings on a range of issues."

Mr Richard Wade, who is based in the Australian Embassy in Belgrade which covers Macedonia and Montenegro as well, was recently in Macedonia and western diplomatic sources have told TEAM UZUNOV blog that Mr Wade was conducting in-depth research and questioning local officials on a wide variety of subjects.

DFAT would not comment if Mr Wade discussed topics, such as the controversial Prespa Agreement signed with Greece which led to Macedonia changing its name, WWII Albanian Nazi collaborator statues built in Macedonia, Bulgarian inspired Holocaust denial and convicted Australian-Albanian terrorist Sevdet Besim, with Macedonian officials.

TEAM UZUNOV blog received a tip about Mr Wade's visit and contacted the Australian Embassy in Belgrade on 7 June 2019 and received a response about six weeks later.

TEAM UZUNOV email: 


I've heard on the grapevine that Mr Richard Wade of DFAT was or still is in Macedonia involved in a fact-finding mission. Is this correct? 

Can you reveal any details of his visit? The topics discussed? Was the Australian Macedonian community concerns over Albanian Neo-Nazism such as the WW2 Albanian Nazi collaborator statues built by Albanian politicians discussed by Mr Wade with Macedonian authorities; the Australian Macedonian community's concerns and anger over name change and the Prespa Agreement with Greece etc.? Concerns over Bulgarian influenced Holocaust denial trying to take root in Macedonia?

Will Australian be opening an Embassy in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia?

Was there any discussion in intelligence sharing between Australian and Macedonia in relation to extremism and terrorism? Was there any discussion about Mr Sevdet Besim, the convicted Australian Albanian terrorist whose family are ethnic Albanians from Macedonia?


COUNTER-TERRORISM INTELLIGENCE EXCHANGE - Australia and Macedonia?

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) together with the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) run counter-terrorism operations in Australia. ASIO doesn't take part in any physical raids or arrests but supplies the relevant intelligence usually obtained by telephone and/or internet intercepts or informers. Australia swaps information with other countries on intelligence and terrorism matters, including Macedonia.

The AFP was contacted to ask if it and the Macedonian security authorities had swapped information about Sevdet Besim, a convicted Australian-Albanian jihadist terrorist who planned an attack in Melbourne in 2015.

An AFP spokesperson issued this statement:

"Unfortunately, we cannot answer that question for you. In no circumstances does the AFP comment on the exchange of intelligence or on intelligence requests from overseas (or even domestic) police. The reason is that talking about such exchanges has the potential to compromise activities being undertaken by policing partners. If they want to confirm they have asked us for information, that’s fine. But we won’t confirm or deny it."

The Macedonian Interior Ministry (MVR) which runs the country's Police and Intelligence services was contacted for a response but no response has been forthcoming.

Australian-born Mr Besim is of ethnic Albanian origin from Macedonia.